A new legal notice regulating development notification orders that should have been approved earlier this week is still pending, it has emerged, leaving architects in the dark.
Last week, Times of Malta reported that the recently set up Planning Authority was turning away architects filing DNO submissions as no applications could be accepted until the new legal notice is approved. A spokesman for the authority said this should have happened this week.
While a legal notice including the introduction of a “new type of planning application, which will sit alongside the familiar full development application and the DNO” came into force last week, the one regulating DNOs has yet to be approved.
It’s very embarrassing and it’s having a negative impact on the profession
The new planning application is known as ‘summary procedures’ and incorporates development types which have been removed from the DNO, development works which do not require external consultations and works which are easily assessed by existing planning policies.
According to the authority spokesman, the new legal notice would serve to regulate a smaller number of DNO classes, yet no information on when this will come into force is yet available.
Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers president Chris Mintoff said the chamber met the authority on Monday to express its concerns, but no new information was given and architects were still waiting for direction.
“We explained what our problems are. We were told the new legal notice should be approved soon but have yet to receive official instructions,” Mr Mintoff said.
He repeated complaints made last week that without the legal notice in place, architects had their hands tied and were unable to properly advise their clients. “It’s very embarrassing and it’s having a negative impact on the profession. We are now just waiting,” Mr Mintoff said.
The legal notice falls within the remit of the Parliamentary Secretary for Planning and Simplification of Administrative Processes Deborah Schembri.
Questions sent to the secretariat had not been answered by the time of writing.